The three-party meeting that took place in Damascus on Friday gathering the Syrian president Bashar al Assad, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was a war council to devise counterattack plans and assign tasks in the event of an Israeli offensive on one or all parties, wrote Abdelbari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds al Arabi.

“The timing of the meeting, the way it was undertaken and the ensuing press conference that was held at its conclusion, all point to a strategic coalition being reinforced. This is the build-up of a new front that will spearhead the confrontation with the US-Israeli alliance and whichever Arab countries that may, expressly or implicitly, be affiliated with it.”

The Iranian president said he expects war to break out somewhere between spring and summer of this year. Meanwhile, the Hizbollah chief vowed to strike the Israeli capital, its airports and power stations if Israel dared to attack Beirut’s critical infrastructure.

“Indeed, we are being exposed to a new discourse here, an unprecedented sense of self-confidence and an unheard-of preparedness for retaliation.”

For its part, the Syrian leadership appears to have made up its mind to close off the US administration’s “trite and cheap” flirtation with Damascus and opted for bolstering its tactical partnership with Tehran.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned the Lebanese government on Monday against sharing telecommunications information with the United States.

Addressing to his supporters gathered in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, the Hezbollah chief stated that any Lebanese citizens convicted of spying for the Jewish state in a series of trials in recent months should be hanged.

Nasrallah said the US embassy is sending letters to ministries and security forces asking for information. "This is dangerous as it is a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, but its real danger lies elsewhere," he said, adding that because of the strategic relationship and unity between the United States and Israelany information gathered through such requests, like spy rings, reaches Israelis.

Reportedly, Lebanese MP's and top officials called for an emergency meeting on Monday after US request for confidential data on Lebanon's telecommunications sector. However, there were no immediate comments available from the US officials.